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Ladies and gentlemen, The Player has given us quite possibly the world’s first constructive power outage.

Trying to stash an old friend in a hotel, Alex Kane (Philip Winchester) is surprised when the hit men pursuing them discover their location. As if that wasn’t bad enough, they cut the power to the building, rendering Cassandra (Charity Wakefield) powerless to help him. It’s up to Alex, unarmed and using only construction supplies plus the camera on his cell phone, to catch the bad guys by surprise and engineer a safe escape from the building.

This scene is the key to “The Big Blind” for a number of reasons. Most immediately, it reminds us that Alexander Kane is television’s new Jack Bauer. He’s a character who can use his brain as much as his brawn. He concocts a battle plan on the fly, then executes it in really entertaining fashion, whether it’s using the camera to blind one guy wearing night-vision goggles, or making use of a lighter to turn another man into a human candle. Alex can handle himself, even if he’s outnumbered and has next to nothing available. Watching this scene, we learn that he is never really out of the fight.

That’s significant, because as we mentioned in discussing the pilot, Alex isn’t just the pawn in the Game. He brings his own skills, his own experience, and his own way of doing things to the table. You can tell the audience that someone is the biggest special-forces badass on the planet, but it doesn’t mean anything unless we see that character doing things that prove the point. Watching this scene, it’s apparent how cunning and tough Alex is, and why this secret cabal of gamblers would pretend to kill his wife in order to get him on their team. This isn’t somebody you’d want to be on the wrong side of.

This scene isn’t a victory for the House; it’s a win for Alex Kane.

Almost more important, the power outage proves that the House has its flaws. When Cassandra’s precious computer system goes blind, it’s the first time we’ve seen the organization at a severe disadvantage. The biggest danger that The Player has to contend with every week is not making that group, with its oft-referenced vast resources and constant presence, into its own deus ex machina. Cassandra can’t always be there to save Alex from danger. Last week’s episode, “L.A. Takedown,” sort of cheated this idea by having Alex in the middle of the desert, but having her find a government drone that just happened to be left in the area. This time, she’s completely out of the Game—that shows the viewers that this series won’t rely on the easy out. Alex will have to win his own battles.

(It also opens up all sorts of future possibilities. Technology, after all, is fallible. What happens if the House’s computer gets hacked? Contracts a virus? Contracts 400,000 viruses? Someone doesn’t update to Windows 11? Lots of stuff that could go wrong here.)

If that still wasn’t enough for you to think about, Alex learns near the end of the episode that the hit men found the hotel because Mr. Johnson gave them his location—Johnson’s dishing out of “consequences” that Alex incurred earlier. As Alex points out, that could’ve gotten everyone killed. It also makes you wonder about the extent to which everyone is playing everyone else, and how this is all supposed to work.

Are we implying that the Game has a pseudo-penalty box, where any misstep by Alex means an advantage is given to the other side of the bet? That’d be a dangerous concept, especially since it’s not entirely clear what the rules are for him to break. And who decides that “consequences” need to be given out? Is it the faceless, nameless gamblers we can’t see? Or is it Mr. Johnson, whom Alex knows has his own agenda? If the latter, it wouldn’t be implausible for him to use that idea to his own advantage should Alex get too far in his way. After all, one of their first conversations involved Alex threatening to throw Mr. Johnson through the window.

I’ve heard a lot of people saying that they don’t understand the concept of The Player, but it’s not that out there. Basically, a mysterious organization has hired a guy to fight crime; the only quirk is that rather than doing it to save the world, they’re doing it to see what happens. What really makes this show appealing is the game within the Game—watching all these characters as they’re interacting with one another and trying to figure out what they’re up to.

By pulling the plug on one hotel, we learned that the House can be powerless to help Alex, that Alex is never powerless to help himself or others in need, and that Mr. Johnson will do whatever he damn well wants regardless of what else is happening. On top of that, we got to see an amazing fight sequence. Most power outages are pretty bad things, but in The Player‘s case, this one was very, very good.

Expression Of JoyThe Brady Bunch: Groovy! The Bradys: Ritual hugging Married…With Children: ”Oh, great.” Thirtysomething: ”Of course I’m happy for you. Really. But what about me? Why does it always have to be about you? The Flintstones: ”Yabba-dabba doo

Expression Of Rage

The Brady Bunch: ”Hmmm…” The Bradys: ”If you back away from something you really want, then you’re a quitter!” (the angriest any Brady has ever been) Married…With Children: ”Aaagh, God, take me from this miserable life!” Thirtysomething: ”I’m not angry, OK?” The Flintstones: ”Willllmaaaa!”

Typical ProblemThe Brady Bunch: Marcia and her rival both want to be the prom queen. The Bradys: Bobby gets paralyzed. Married…With Children: Al doesn’t buy his family Christmas presents. Thirtysomething: Nancy gets cancer. The Flintstones: Fred and Barney are staying out too late.

Typical SolutionThe Brady Bunch: The prom committee decides to have two queens. The Bradys: Bobby gets married. Married…With Children: They hate him. Thirtysomething: If only we knew… The Flintstones: Wilma and Betty decide to follow them.

Attitude Toward SexThe Brady Bunch: Never heard of it The Bradys: Omigod — even Cindy does it! Married…With Children: Peg: Yes. Al: No. Thirtysomething: They didn’t get all those kids by accident. The Flintstones: Prehistoric

How Spouses FightThe Brady Bunch: They don’t. The Bradys: Infrequently, but it happens Married…With Children: Tooth and nail Thirtysomething: They stop talking The Flintstones: Fred and Barney go bowling while Wilma and Betty max out their charge cards.

How Kids Get Into TroubleThe Brady Bunch: Greg takes a puff of a cigarette. The Bradys: Carol’s grandson steals her business cards and sticks them in the spokes of Bobby’s wheelchair. Married…With Children: By committing felonies Thirtysomething: Ethan plays with a forbidden toy rocket. The Flintstones: They don’t.

How They’re Punished

The Brady Bunch: ”It’s not what you did, honey — it’s that you couldn’t come to us.” The Bradys ”Next time, ask.” Married…With Children: By the authorities Thirtysomething: It blows up in his face. The Flintstones: They’re not.

What Family Does For FunThe Brady Bunch: Takes special three-part vacations to Hawaii and the Grand Canyon The Bradys: Has flashbacks Married…With Children: Exchanges insults Thirtysomething: Talks The Flintstones: Attends showings of The Monster at the Bedrock Drive-In

Unsolved MysteriesThe Brady Bunch: How exactly did Carol’s first husband and Mike’s first wife die? The Bradys: What’s with Marcia’s new face and Bobby’s blonde hair Married…With Children: What kind of hair spray does Peg use? Thirtysomething: Why did Nancy take Elliot back? What do Gary and Susanna see in each other? The Flintstones: How does Barney’s shirt stay on if he has no shoulders? Where do Fred and Wilma plug in their TV?

Worst BehaviorThe Brady Bunch: The Brady children once made Alice feel under-appreciated.

Best Reason To WatchThe Brady Bunch: This is what life should be. The Bradys: They’re all grown-ups now! Married…With Children: Terry Rakolta hates it. Thirtysomething (Tie) This is your life. This isn’t your life. The Flintstones: This is what life might have been.

Best Reason Not To WatchThe Brady Bunch: Blurred vision from rerun overdoses. The Bradys: You’re all grown-ups now. Married…With Children: She has a point. Thirtysomething: After a while, you think it’s real. The Flintstones: The Simpsons